A few years ago I went to Dallas with my team to play in the Summer National, the main event being the Spingold, a knockout tournament which attracts some of the best teams in the world. We did rather well and found ourselves in the quarter finals, and our opponents were Marty Fleisher’s team of
It was a treat to see so many of the world’s top players in London for the World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships last week. Now in its third edition, the event has an unusual format, in which teams of six must include one female player and one rated below 2000 (roughly, a strong club
White to play. Grischuk-Firouzja, World Blitz Team Championship, London 2025. A bishop up, Firouzja seems to have everything covered. Which move allowed Grischuk to save the draw? Email answers to chess@spectator.co.uk by Monday 23 June. There is a prize of a £20 John Lewis voucher for the first correct answer out of a hat. Please
For Competition 3404 you were invited to design your own Midsummer rites. There were fewer entries than usual, all of them very good. I was sorry not to have room for Mark Ambrose’s ritual involving a small white ball (‘Eighteen is the sacred number. We assemble before dawn and climb the hill to a wooded
Two of the eight unclued entries, appropriately placed, were likened to two others by a name hidden in the grid. The other four unclued entries are thematic. Unchecked letters could be arranged to spell ‘NO VAIN OAP MISBELIEVER, HIM’. Across 1 Treated ATMs etc like cash cows (4,7) 7 Tailless parasite twitching (3) 13 In
The unclued lights have all won the Pier of the Year award. First prize John Liddicoat, Swanage, Dorset Runners-up Rosamund Campbell, Woodstock, Oxon; C.J. Malone, Dumfries
